Lake Superior College – Online Course Peer Review

Faculty interest in the peer review process is down a bit this semester compared to this same time last year.  In an effort to get to the bottom of the decline, I spoke with LSC’s instructional technologist, Susan Bentley McCahan who works closely with faculty members who are just starting out with online learning.  Susan has noticed that, oftentimes, when she recommends an online faculty member consider having a course reviewed, the response she gets is that the course “isn’t quite ready for a peer review yet”.  Of course, the purpose of a peer review isn’t to evaluate a course, it’s to assist faculty in creating a more user-friendly course.  Clearly, I need to express that more strongly to faculty.

Susan recommends using the standards of the peer review rubric to create a more simplistic online course checklist to give to first-time online faculty who are working on developing courses.  This checklist could also be made available to all online faculty—particularly those who are tentatively interested in having a course reviewed and would like to quickly see how their course might fare before the review itself.

So, watch for this online course quality checklist sometime in the new year, as I’ll be putting it together over the holiday break.

Most online instructors encourage students to introduce themselves to each other during the first week of class. Whether it’s a graded activity or not, this is a good way to get students interacting and to build a sense of community. What instructors may forget, however, is that students are interested in knowing who’s teaching the class, as well.

Rubric standard I.5 states: The self-introductions by the instructor and student mentor (if utilized) are available and appropriate.

Ideally, an instructor’s introduction will go beyond the essentials which might include the instructor’s name, title, field of expertise, and contact information. Including information such as past experiences with teaching online, personal teaching philosophies, hobbies, and so on can help to create a sense of connection between the instructor and the students. Building that connection can help to put nervous students at ease, as they may feel more comfortable asking course-related questions of both the instructor and fellow classmates.

Rubric standard I.6 states: Students are requested to introduce themselves to the class.

The first online course I took (interesting to take an online course after having taught online for years!) did not include a forum for student introductions. Instead of feeling that I was part of a class, I felt alone—as though I was taking an independent study class. As a result, I beefed up the introduction requirement in my own classes, asking students not only to introduce themselves, but to post one or two things they hoped to learn in class, as well. It’s been a positive move!

Photo by: www.northernimages.com

Netiquette is, more or less, the use of appropriate communication online (network etiquette).  This rubric standard is worth just one point, yet clearly communicating to students what is expected in terms of appropriate communication can result in less work for the instructor (fewer emails to students about what is/is not appropriate, fewer deletions of discussion postings, and maybe even fewer instructor headaches!). 

 The rubric standard states: Netiquette guidelines for the course, including etiquette regarding discussions and email communications, are clearly stated.

 It is important to note that the stated guidelines themselves are not evaluated during a peer review.  Reviewers are just to make sure that some netiquette guidelines are in place.

When writing netiquette guidelines, consider explanations of:

• Rules of conduct for participating in discussions.
• Rules of conduct for communicating via email.
• Speaking style requirements (correct English? slang ok?)
• Spelling and grammar expectations, if any.

When conducting a review, if it isn’t already found in an LSC instructor’s course, I recommend the following link be added:  http://www.lsc.edu/Online/Start/netiquette.cfm  You’ll find our Code of Conduct/LSC Media Use Policy there as well as a couple of very helpful netiquette links.

Of course, I need to add that some of the recommendations found above are from the rubric annotations that the LSC peer review team adapted from MarylandOnline’s Quality Matters program.  They did good work!

 I’d love to hear comments from readers!  Anything in particular you’d like me to address regarding online course peer review?